


to an extent

by tiredRobin



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, Revelations, The Original Guardians Are All Of Them Fools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 03:19:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13158153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredRobin/pseuds/tiredRobin
Summary: North considers his mistakes when it comes to the Guardian of Fun.





	to an extent

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this on my phone and didnt beta read so any mistakes are my own. winks weakly

there is a guilt in his chest north doesn’t want to acknowledge. it is solid as a rock, a lump of coal, and it only grows, never abates, as he gets to know the guardian of fun.

jack is a lot more than the rumors whisper. north had discovered this in the battle against pitch, of course, and five years later this is certainly not news to him, but as he watches jack laugh he wonders now how he could have been so blind before. 

for the rumors murmured of a mischievous smile—they had not been wrong. they muttered of sharp sarcasm, of white teeth and a silver tongue of wit; they were not wrong. they grumbled of pranks, of torments to other spirits, of a recklessness and a carelessness one usually only witnesses in children. these were true. 

to an extent. 

rumors exaggerate and blow up the truth; rumors omit important details. jack is all those things to varying degrees, and it is all certainly what he initially presents. most spirits knew him only in brief interaction, as no one had time to dither with an annoying lesser spirit. 

what rumors forget to mention is that his smiles do not hide an icy heart and that his jokes are made with a true friendliness, an invitation to amusement. he is not malicious in his pranks; he is sarcastic, maintains a sharp wit, but not without reason. his laughs are warm, his heart is big, his grins are nearly blinding in their genuineness. jack seeks to enjoy himself and in turn to bring others joy; jack fights the darkness with an infallible, relentless light.

north watches him flit and float about the workshop with childlike wonder as he ever does when it is at its height of production, even five years after becoming acquainted with the place, and he might frost the windows and throw snowballs at unsuspecting yetis and—very occasionally—freeze an elf, but this mischievousness is all in good fun. he is not the hard, cold troublemaker rumors made him out to be for three hundred years.

he is only a child, still. a child who wanted to be seen, to be heard, and was met with turned heads. it is no wonder he resorted to what he could to bring attention to him, even if it never brought acknowledgement. 

and it _is_ a wonder that this boy, this spirit of joy, would ever deign to forgive those who shunned him for three centuries.

the guilt sits in north’s chest, one that he hates to acknowledge but knows he must.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for readin!!!!1!12 hope u enjoyed


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